Meeting the Cows! Chick-fil-A Ehrlich Road 1st Birthday Party

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00][bell] >> HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

[00:00:05]>> [music] [music] >> WE LOVE CHICK-FIL-A. WE ARE at Chick-fil-A on Ehrlich, right off of Dale Mabry here in Tampa, Florida. It's the first birthday of this location and I am with Addie Fell. Addie, what's your title here? Mar- I'm the marketing director and community relations director. Okay, so how did this all come to be? Are we still following the Cathy Truitt plan? What's going on here?

[00:00:46]>> Definitely. So, the Cathy Truitt plan is all about hospitality, community and presence. That's exactly what today is all about, but really what every single day of the year that we ever serve people, greet guests is all about. It's a more than a chicken sandwich. It's all about being a bright point in someone's day, um showing the hospitality that I think has been lost in the service industry.

[00:01:10]And um also just being a fun place for our community to gather at. We have cows here today. We are giving away a ton of free food just as a thank you to all of our loyal guests that have supported us throughout this past year.

[00:01:25]Um and we're just here to have fun. Face painting, balloon animals, but more than that, like a place where people can look to to be like a third place in the community almost. Who is a manager or managing oversight of this particular location? So, I am considered a manager.

[00:01:44]However, our general manager for both locations, this one on Ehrlich and the one in Lutz, the drive-thru only store, the manager is Connor Grindstaff. And then the franchise owner operator, his name is Ricardo Sanchez.

[00:01:59]So, this is one of the larger Chick-fil-A's because, you know, I've driven around Tampa and there's quite a few, but this is one of the larger ones.

[00:02:08]We had to go through a lot of permitting with the county to get open, especially with our water, so that held us back a little bit, but it seems like May 15th was a perfect day to open. May 15th, and that's what today is, May 15th, 2026.

[00:02:23]This is the first year, first anniversary, first birthday of Chick-fil-A Ehrlich. What's the actual address here? 3800 Ehrlich Road, pretty simple.

[00:02:33]Yeah, if you're in Tampa [laughter] or you're visiting, 3800 Ehrlich Road, right off of Dale Mabry.

[00:02:41]Perfect slip in, and like I said, this is one of the larger ones, and that's important because you know there's always a line. Yeah.

[00:02:48]>> There's always a line at Chick-fil-A, but they're always very quick about serving. We have the sign right here.

[00:02:54]I've had different team members holding it up at the street all day long, um, to let people know that we indeed have a real cow that you can meet today.

[00:03:03]We actually have two of them, two different variety of varieties of cows, and we're going to give away a free chicken sandwich voucher for every single order as a way to just celebrate with our community and give back a little bit. And there's a lot of families here today. Now, I know probably because it's your birthday, you have more people in the store than usual.

[00:03:24]>> But, what on a given day, is it still quite a a lot of people coming in through the drive-thru and everything?

[00:03:30]It's certainly not by the one by me, it is always hopping.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah, the drive-thru is pretty much busy all day long. Um, our drive-thru com- Our drive-thru consists of about 80% of our sales. Then we have other avenues such as curbside and dine-in. Um, we really have an emphasis on dine-in at this store because our other location only has a drive-thru.

[00:03:56]Um but something special about our drive-thru is that we have a mobile through lane, which essentially you skip the whole line when you order in the app and just scan at the queue.

[00:04:06]Um and so it's a lot faster. You don't have to really talk to anybody. Um but yeah.

[00:04:12]But you also have catering. We do have catering, yes.

[00:04:15]>> Cuz we've used your catering in our event. So talk about the catering. I mean, guys, Chick-fil-A is awesome. I had Addie at one of our events and she came with fruit fruit salad and chicken sandwiches. Talk about the catering.

[00:04:28]Yeah, our catering is phenomenal. You get a great deal for what you purchase and everybody loves Chick-fil-A, so you know it's going to be crowd-pleasing.

[00:04:37]And what about the food? If there's ever a day where he doesn't feel like eating, we always get Chick-fil-A cuz it's a guarantee. Guaranteed Luke guys going to love Chick-fil-A. Every single time.

[00:04:48]Every single time. Um right now we're really focusing on catering those graduation parties, but we love catering with businesses. We love making those partnerships so that we know you're consistently ordering with us and we can give something back to you.

[00:05:04]Um but we love to cater a family gatherings, business meetings, um family nights, holidays, birthday parties, all of the above.

[00:05:13]And I found it very interesting that you have chicken for breakfast cuz I had a chicken sandwich. It was egg uh egg white and uh piece of uh chicken breast and it was for breakfast and it was actually very delicious. Yeah. I never really considered having chicken for breakfast, but it was very good. Talk about the breakfast. Breakfast is one of We have a term in Chick-fil-A lingo called day part. We have four different day parts: breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. And so breakfast is probably honestly our slowest day part because like you, a lot A lot don't think of eating Chick-fil-A for breakfast, but >> I can say firsthand cuz I eat here all the time, it's delicious. We have chicken biscuits, we have chicken minis, which are like little honey butter breads with chicken nuggets in the middle, awesome.

[00:05:59]Um and we also have really good fruit.

[00:06:01]We have a wrap and an egg white grill.

[00:06:04]That's my favorite thing ever and honestly, it's a really healthy breakfast. It's just an English muffin, grilled chicken, cheese, and egg white.

[00:06:13]It's delicious. Try it with honey roasted barbecue sauce. So breakfast, guys. Breakfast is something you can get at Chick-fil-A. Because that's important because I think there are some stores that I want to really mention, but you don't have breakfast as an option at all. And so is breakfast available all day or is it just in the first part?

[00:06:31]>> just until 10:30. We're pretty strict about that cut off, so make sure you get here on the way to work, on the way to school. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um let's talk about the whole Sunday off thing. Does that still happen?

[00:06:48]>> Oh, yeah. So Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, um even back before Chick-fil-A was really the restaurant's name, he owned a diner and even then, um even though he would have made so much profit on Sunday, he took the day off because it was a holy and sacred day to him, but also because he valued giving his employees rest. Um I think that's really important and it's something I really treasure and value that no matter how crazy my work week is going to look, I know that I have Sunday off. Now, sometimes on Sunday we'll have a meeting that we of course pay our workers for, but that's only probably twice a year and it's just to make sure that we're on the same page because it is the only day that I can guarantee everybody will be able to be in the room, be able to discuss and see the vision that we're trying to get them to see, but we also try to do some fun field days and staff hangouts on Sundays. Of course, it's not mandatory, but because it's a day that we can all enjoy having off, sometimes we like to enjoy it together.

[00:07:55]For Chick-fil-A, it's you guys have a strong leadership focus for your staff.

[00:08:01]I mean, you take you have great staff. I have to say your staff's always very pleasant, seems to be like a college crowd for the most part, very forward-thinking. I mean, you guys have a focus on leadership. Talk about the leadership cuz, you know, I mean, guess what? We're here, but guess what? They they hire all the time. So, [laughter] if you're thinking of a job and you're in the local Tampa area, you might want to work here. So, let's talk about working here. Yeah. So, we are in the business of developing leaders, and we, of course, would love if you made Chick-fil-A a career, but we know that's not the reality for most people, especially or the age range that we typically hire. So, our goal really is to be a leadership development stepping stone in your journey to whatever you're looking towards next.

[00:08:50]Um our operations staff does an amazing job with training, with hiring, with identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each individual and then developing them from there.

[00:09:02]Um and I'm really grateful for that and for the the changes and the progress that I've seen just in my year and a half being at Chick-fil-A. It's been amazing.

[00:09:12]It's a breath of fresh air from anywhere else that I've worked because it's been so cool to see the culture and how much we value kindness and hospitality and that Chick-fil-A service, the my pleasure service that everybody knows us for. Here in Florida, we cannot discriminate. You just can't. But, you guys are very very public, very forward, about being Christian, being faith-based. How does that work when it comes to hiring and working with people who may not share the faith, or even may be visible about being something else?

[00:09:50]>> Yeah. So, I think that I'm an amazing person to answer this question because I myself am a Christian, and I hold these values very dearly to my life, and they're something that I try to live by every single day and in every single moment. However, a lot of people that work with me don't share those values.

[00:10:08]But, the thing that I think is really cool is that the faith-based values that Chick-fil-A has are transcendent to um to the service and the kindness that we show everybody that we come in contact with. And so, somebody doesn't have to share my Christian faith to have that hospitable my pleasure attitude.

[00:10:29]And honestly, that's the core of why we're faith-based because in a Christian sense, we want to be a light in the world, but in a worldly sense, we just want to be a bright point in somebody's day. And so, you can do that no matter what faith you have, no matter what your life looks like.

[00:10:47]Um and that's the beautiful part about working here and working in a community that we strive to be like-minded no matter what our differences may be.

[00:10:55]Um I just love it, and I think it's special.

[00:10:59]Is there anything else that you want to share?

[00:11:02]So, the Chick-fil-A mobile app, it's called Chick-fil-A One. It is honestly, I don't say this because I work here, because it's part of my job, but like I think it's a really great app because most rewards apps, especially for restaurants and fast food places, they really just want you to come several several times until you finally work your way up to like a free side item. We are not like that. Um Chick-fil-A has this term we love to surprise and delight people, especially our regular guests. And so, all the time we're sending out free rewards. Like, today not only are we giving away free chicken sandwich voucher to every single person that orders with us today, but we also sent out a cookie reward to our 18,000 um mobile app users that frequently visit the store. And so, we like to send out free breakfast, free sides, free nuggets, whatever it is, not just because you earned them, although you do earn a lot of cool and delicious rewards with the Chick-fil-A app, but just because we want to treat you. Let me think. Let me think. And with the mobile app, you have capabilities to order in ways that a regular guest without the app does not have a way to. We have curbside ordering, and we have mobile through ordering, and both of those save you a lot of time. They save you the wait in line. They save you the hassle in trying to figure out in front of a person with an iPad what your order's going to be because you just put your order in with a few taps, and you pay, and that's it. You just show up, scan the code, and your food's ready for you.

[00:12:38]You didn't even really have to do work to get there.

[00:12:41]And you guys, your service is pretty fast cuz even though you're you have a long line, you get through those lines really, really fast.

[00:12:47]>> Yeah. And the thing is, our goal is to always be busy, not just because we want to make money, but like the busier we are, the fresher food we're able to give you because there's more of a need to drop the fries or fry the chicken and fry fresh [clears throat] chicken. And so, the busier we are, the better products we're going to be able to give you. Um but at the end of the day, like every Chick-fil-A I've ever seen is pretty busy, so you're always going to get a fresh product that hasn't been sitting on the warmer for 20 minutes like you might get in another fast food place.

[00:13:22]I also want to share that Addy I met Addy through a networking event. And what that means is she's actively in the local Tampa Bay community. She is going out representing this location or both locations.

[00:13:37]>> Both locations.

[00:13:37]>> She's going out representing the locations so that we're aware it's here, but also like I said she catered the event that I had. So she we partnered together on that. So she is visible and active in the community and she has created many partnerships as a result of that. I mean how many people do you know that they have someone actively going out representing the store in the community other than here because most times you have to go to the location to know about the location. They're not just doing that. They are active in the community making sure we know they're they're here. I feel like today is a perfect example of that because outside I have so many of our community partners. We have the Little Gym, we have i9 Sports, we're going to have the School of Rock here in just a little bit. Um and we just we love having our community partners here.

[00:14:29]>> Yes, I see these here. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:14:32]Because we just love to also give them that visibility and tell them join in on the fun that we have going on. The value of that though is when you partner with Chick-fil-A, you get to benefit from that because yeah, because that's the whole point. I mean the partnerships that were here today like myself and the Little Gym and the i9 Sports and the cows and we're here because we have a relationship with this store. Not just because you know, I mean we have a real relationship with this location. And so she really has been very good about going out in locally and making those connections and making those partnerships. And then it's a symbiotic relationship cuz we're all here. We're all we're there the the face painting, the balloon guy. I mean we're here facilitating the extra activities in in store and we benefit as well. So it it really works out to be a partner with this location. Yeah, and to build on what those partnerships in the community look like, another huge emphasis I have is partnering with schools.

[00:15:33]Um I do a ton of fundraisers throughout the school year for schools, and then in the summer I like to focus on some nonprofits and do fundraisers for them.

[00:15:42]We give back 20% from those fundraisers, which is honestly really generous amount compared to even other Chick-fil-A's that I've seen, but our operator, Ricardo Sanchez, he just loves giving back and our heartbeat here is to be a part of the community and to lift others up with us. Um so, that's something I enjoy so much. And another way we love to partner with schools, we do parent pre paid and pre ordered school lunches.

[00:16:11]I love to do Chick-fil-A Fridays at a lot of schools, and it can also serve as a fundraising opportunity for your school. So, if that's something that you guys might be interested in, you know where to find me. Um but I'd love to help fundraise for your school or your nonprofit this year.

[00:16:28]What's coming up next for Chick-fil-A for this location? For the two locations. What's the other location again? It's the drive-thru only.

[00:16:37]>> DTO, drive-thru only.

[00:16:39]Um and it's right down the road on North Dale Mabry. So, I like to call our franchise both stores together the North Dale Mabry stores cuz that's what we are. Okay. Um coming up next, we're taking a little bit of a break after this um so that I can go on vacation.

[00:16:55]But after that, we will um I love to do princess parties and superhero parties.

[00:17:02]So, we're going to start those up in the summer.

[00:17:05]Um I have The Little Mermaid coming at the end of June. I have Moana coming in July. And then in August, I have Spider-Man that's going to be here. I also have a lot of other fun summer activities like a Lego building night, um an ice cream social where you get to make friendship bracelets and decorate like an ice cream sundae yourself. But I'll probably think of some other fun things, but that's what I have planned so far. And then when we look way ahead in Christmas, we love to decorate our store. I don't know if you got the pleasure of seeing our store last year, but I thought it was beautiful.

[00:17:43]Um and I do so many fun events during Christmas time. It's like the busiest month of my life, but it's also so much fun.

[00:17:51]Um so you guys will have to come check it out when Christmas time comes around.

[00:18:04]Can you tell me a little bit about the balloon work and your name? And is there is this like company? What's going on here? You're partnering with Chick-fil-A today.

[00:18:13]Sure. Well, my name is Brenda and I'm working today with Let's Plan a Party.

[00:18:19]We're doing balloon twisting and face painting.

[00:18:22]And these folks these young folks are telling me what they like and we're making it a sword. Awesome. So that was what a sword? Yes, ma'am. And your name is?

[00:18:32]Chania Alvarez with Let's Plan a Party.

[00:18:34][clears throat] Chania Alvarez with Let's Plan a Party.

[00:18:38]>> Let's Plan a Party and I see you're doing face painting. We are. We're painting a Spider-Man.

[00:18:44]Spider-Man. And there we go. And we're partnering with Chick-fil-A today for their birthday party. And is it has it been pretty busy like this steady all day?

[00:18:54]>> It has been like this all day. Awesome.

[00:18:56]Awesome.

[00:19:00]How can people find you?

[00:19:02]So um you can find me at uh Let's Plan a Party FL on Instagram or Facebook. And then we have a little flyer here as well, and our website is letsplanaparty.com.

[00:19:25]Torres Orthodontics, you are partnering up with Chick-fil-A today for this birthday. That's an awesome partnership.

[00:19:33]Thank you for you guys for being here.

[00:19:35]Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Diana. I'm work from Torres Orthodontics.

[00:19:41]We are an orthodontic office. We do braces, aligners, um like you see here.

[00:19:50]Um we are located um um Westchase area on Sheldon Road close to Costco. We are right now offering $800 discount if you are starting treatment with us. We do children, adults, and our first consultation is free.

[00:20:07]So, you always can call us and do an appointment, okay? We take Medicaid, dental insurance, and if you don't have anything like that, we do monthly payments too, okay? Thank you.

[00:20:18]We are speaking with Mark Keith from i9 Sports, and i9 Sports is partnering with Chick-fil-A today for their first birthday of being at this location. Where are you guys located in relation to this store? Uh we're right down the street, 5 minutes up the road at the Ben Hill Middle School. Um we're there at North Pinellas, uh North Hillsborough, and Westchase, Davis and Waters. Oh, multiple locations.

[00:20:43]>> Multiple locations. Yeah, we're all over the North Hillsborough area. Okay, so what is i9 Sports exactly? Uh it's youth sports. And we do all all the sports. We do flag football, soccer, cheerleading, volleyball, hand tennis, and a lot of our levels start at the beginning level, so we train and we um enhance the skill set, and then we go into our league where they play games, and they're allowed to or they use those skills into the games. Everything they just learned into the games.

[00:21:09]And I see here for the birthday party here at Chick-fil-A, you have games outside right now.

[00:21:15]>> Yes. Yes, we have our >> are they playing? There's a net game out there. What are they >> Right now they're working on our accuracy net. We use that in our flag football training where our players drop back and they learn how to follow through all the way through and hit the target. Okay. And do you guys have summer camp? Yes. Our summer camp starts June 6th. It's 4 weeks. We have that one that starts there and then we have another one that starts in Westchase on July 12th.

[00:21:38]All right. Awesome. Is there anything else you want to share? How can people find you? Um you go online. Go online at i9sports.com. You put in your zip code and then if you call the number, you call me. So I'll answer and I'll help you out. And that's with i9 i9sports.com.

[00:21:52]>> sports.com. I with the number nine, letter I, number nine, sports.com. Yeah.

[00:21:58]Put in your zip code and it'll pull up the closest thing to you. And you'll get Mark P or one of the course uh coaches.

[00:22:04]>> Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you so much.

[00:22:06]>> Thank you for having me. And so we are with Lindsey from The Little Gym and Lindsey, you're here in support of all Yes.

[00:22:15]We're down the street. We partner with them. Our members and our families come to this Chick-fil-A and this Chick-fil-A's members and families also come to our Little Gym. So it's just been a perfect partnership. We love being their neighbors.

[00:22:33]Am I going to be on the news?

[00:22:35]Probably not the news. And we're talking with What's your name? Dakota. Dakota, are you local to Temple here?

[00:22:41]>> Yes. And what brought you to the Chick-fil-A today? Um This is right next to my school. I go here like almost every morning. I love it here. Oh my gosh. And so today is the birthday. You're aware of that, right?

[00:22:53]So how did you know about the birthday?

[00:22:55]I didn't. I was just going to go here and then I saw all these people. I was like it's like a party. It is a party.

[00:23:00]And what about the food? Do you like the food here? Yeah, it's really good. And all the service is super fast. All right. Anything else you want to share while you're here, Dakota? Um everyone go to this Chick-fil-A. Yeah, and what you what was the name of the school you went to you said? Calvert Day School.

[00:23:15]>> Calvert Oh, that's that private school, right?

[00:23:18]Okay, cool cool. You wanted to give a shout-out to anybody? Um everyone follow me on Instagram.

[00:23:23]>> There you go. What's your handle? D Dakota with an H at the end dot g.

[00:23:29]Dakota with an H at the end dot g.

[00:23:32]Follow her on Instagram.

[00:23:34]We're back with what's your name? Dylan.

[00:23:37]Dylan and >> Malachi. And Dakota.

[00:23:41]>> And they're all with the Calvert Day Day School. So Tell about the food. Malachi, what's going on?

[00:23:47]>> I love Chick-fil-A. After every single time I'm finished with the SAT, I go to Chick-fil-A.

[00:23:53]Very true.

[00:23:54]Um my go-to order is the number two. And you get some mac and cheese and you dip the number two in the mac and cheese.

[00:24:00]It's amazing. But I love Chick-fil-A.

[00:24:05]I think I spend more money here than on my own hygiene. Oh god.

[00:24:09]>> So My go-to is the number one, but instead of a side of fries, I get a side of mac and cheese and I put the mac and cheese on the sandwich and I close it all in. I put Chick-fil-A sauce and I eat it.

[00:24:21]Shameless plug.

[00:24:23]All right. Plug Malachi George.

[00:24:26]On Instagram?

[00:24:28]Remember the name Malachi George. Might be a future star one day in hockey.

[00:24:33]Okay.

[00:24:35]And then I already gave them my Instagram.

[00:24:39]All right. What about yours? Oh, go ahead. Oh, you put your camera Okay, got you. We have Khaleesi. She's one of the guests of the store today and your beautiful son is? Luca. Luca. Khaleesi and Luca. Are you enjoying the party? We are. We're super excited to see a cow.

[00:24:54]Oh, you saw the cow? We saw the cow.

[00:24:56]Luca, did you You like the cow?

[00:24:58]Yeah. Yeah? Oh, cool.

[00:25:00]So, you're having fun? We are having fun. What about the food? If there's ever a day where he doesn't feel like eating, we always get Chick-fil-A cuz it's a guarantee. Guarantee Luca's going to love Chick-fil-A.

[00:25:12]>> Every single time. Every single time.

[00:25:14]Awesome.

[00:25:15]Awesome. Anything else you want to share?

[00:25:17]Anybody want to shout out? My husband, he couldn't be here. Aw.

[00:25:21]>> pictures. Okay, great.

[00:25:23]>> a sandwich. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And who do we have here today?

[00:25:28]Logan. Come up a little closer for me. I want to hear you. What's your name, darling?

[00:25:33]Logan? Yeah. And what's your name, daddy?

[00:25:35]>> Marquise. Marquise, okay. And we're at the Chick-fil-A birthday party. This is a birthday party. Did you know that?

[00:25:42]Yeah.

[00:25:43]Do you like balloons?

[00:25:45]Want to say Did you say happy birthday to the cows? Did you see the cows outside?

[00:25:49]Yeah?

[00:25:50]All right. Do you love Chick-fil-A food?

[00:25:53]How much you like Chick-fil-A food? I know daddy's probably spent a pretty penny here, right?

[00:25:57]>> What's your favorite Chick-fil-A thing?

[00:25:59]The french fries?

[00:26:01]And the lemonade.

[00:26:05]All right. Well, thank you so much.

[00:26:07]>> Say thank you. Want to say shout out to anybody? Say shout out to mommy and baby brother.

[00:26:12]No?

[00:26:14]Sorry. All right. We're PSI TV. It's We love Chick-fil-A and we also love being their customers. I bring my family here and it's one of our favorite Chick-fil-A. And what's your name, young man? Miller.

[00:26:25]Miller? I can't see Miller. Come here.

[00:26:31]Miller? Can you wave and say hi? Love Chick-fil-A. Say happy birthday.

[00:26:35]Happy birthday, Chick-fil-A.

[00:26:52]>> Hey!

[00:26:56]Hey!

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